Rachel Maddow warned viewers on Monday that President Donald Trump plans to interfere with midterm election results, following the Supreme Court’s recent 7-2 ruling against his executive order instructing the US Postal Service (USPS) to block states from distributing and collecting mail-in ballots.
Trump’s order, which he signed last March, would’ve directed the USPS to refuse to deliver mail-in ballots to anyone whose information hadn’t been properly submitted to a new state citizenship list maintained by the federal government.
“Trump is counting on confusion, uncertainty, and a lack of confidence in the mail-in voting system to suppress voter turnout,” she said.
One thing I, as a Swede, am having a hard time understanding is the heavy reliance on mail-in voting. We just had our elections last Sunday and you couldn’t even vote by mail, with the only exception being if you live abroad. Otherwise you are going to your designated voting location on the day with your voting card and ID, or to any of the early voting locations. Even with these rules we had a turnout of nearly 85%.
Lol, bruh
Sweden: 450,295 km2 USA: … 9,833,520 km2
We are 20x the size and very spread out. Mail in voting is a very efficient way to get it done. When it’s done right.
Sweden has a population of 10 million. 10 of our states have populations well over that. Hell, California has 40 million people. Even with neighborhood voting stations it’s a big procedure. The process itself isn’t bad, about an hour or three, but the whole procedure of taking off work and getting there with thousands of others makes it a logistical circus.
Sweden is a beautiful country filled with intelligent and worldy people who have a functional government and solid social net.
54% of our population have a below 6th grade reading level. A quarter of our population is functionally illiterate.
Getting the majority of people to vote is like herding cats. Plus there are only two parties so many people feel disenfranchised. We used to have strong national values about doing our civic duty, but that has largely fallen out of favor. We are not an united people.
We are essentially the ultra-capitalist version of Russia and as advanced as much of our tech is, our civic services are 15 years behind the times.
If we could vote online, and were required to, many many things would be different.
Part of the popularity in mail-in voting in recent years has been because a lot of fashy dudes like to hang out at polling places and threaten folks they don’t think should be voting (e.g. women and racial minorities, etc).
Election day is on a Tuesday. You don’t necessarily get the day off work. I think they are open until 7, but I wouldn’t know because I work 12 hour shifts 9 - 9 when I work. There is early voting but mail in just makes it so much easier. I can sit down and research all the candidates for each thing I am voting for.
And the mail in voting in Florida was great (strange to say something political in Florida was great, but it was). You opt in for mail in, then every election you can vote for, they have to send you a ballot. Sometimes you don’t even know there is an election going on and you get the ballot and you can research and find out why, and make an informed vote.
It’s just a system that makes sense and encourages more participation and allows for better engagement with your choices. So of course they are trying to dismantle it. It’s still good in Florida, but now you get opted back out after every major election and you have to go and get yourself opted back in. Small hurdle but I’m sure people have forgotten.
Distance.
Australia does it as well. It’s fine as long as the system behind it is fair and well regulated.
That’s the issue they have. But yeah it’s distance, for one reason. Working away from home is another though most do an early or absentee vote here to get around that.
Edit: I also note local knowledge from who I think is an American about not getting a day off or on a weekend (like us) which only strengthens the reason to have postal votes.
So because the filthy evil vile people who are not part of team Republican and won’t willingly vote against their best interests, Republicans have spent decades making it hard to vote. For example this round of Republican fuckery, Despite Trump literally mailing his vote in, Republicans fearing lots of Democratic votes via mail in voting, hoping those voter just won’t be able to vote…wether because they physically manage to travel or too few places to vote…
Republicans tend to try to make it harder/illegal to stop them instead of trying to run on policies people would willingly vote for.
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